Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that he appreciated the United State's veto at the UN Security Council, blocking a demand for a ceasefire in Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza.
"Other countries must also understand that it's impossible to support the elimination of Hamas on one side, and on the other to call for the end of the war, which will prevent the elimination of Hamas," Netanyahu said.
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has praised the US's ceasefire veto. (AP PHOTO)
"Therefore Israel will continue our just war to eliminate Hamas and achieve the war's other objectives that we set.
Since a truce collapsed last week, Israel has expanded its ground campaign into the southern half of the Gaza Strip by pushing into Khan Younis. Simultaneously, both sides have reported a surge in fighting in the north.
Israel's Arabic-language spokesperson posted a map on X highlighting six numbered blocks of Khan Younis that residents were told to evacuate "urgently" on Saturday. They included parts of the city centre that had not been subject to such orders before.
Israel issued similar warnings before storming eastern parts of the city and residents said they feared new evacuation orders heralded a further assault.
Palestinians are fleeing the Israeli ground offensive in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip. (AP PHOTO)
"It might be a matter of time before they act against our area too. We have been hearing bombing all night," said Zainab Khalil, 57, displaced with 30 of her relatives and friends in Khan Younis near Jalal street where troops told people to leave.
"We don't sleep at night, we stay awake, we try to put the children to sleep and we stay up fearing the place would be bombed and we'll have to run carrying the children out. During the day begins another tragedy, and that is: how to feed the children?"
With food and medical supplies also scarce, a senior UN World Food Program official said a new system was being tested to bring aid into Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel, potentially allowing imports to ramp up. However, Israel has not yet agreed to open the crossing.
The vast majority of Gaza's 2.3 million residents have already been forced from their homes. With fighting raging across the length of the territory, residents and UN agencies say there is now effectively nowhere safe to go, though Israel disputes this.
In Khan Younis, the dead and wounded arrived through the night at the overwhelmed Nasser hospital. A medic ran out of an ambulance with the limp body of a small girl in a pink tracksuit. Inside, wounded children wailed and writhed on the tile floor as nurses raced to comfort them. Outside, bodies were lined up in white shrouds.
Palestinians wounded in Israel's bombardment of the Gaza Strip arrive at a hospital in Khan Younis. (AP PHOTO)
Nasser and another southern hospital, al Aqsa in Deir al-Balah, reported 133 dead and 259 wounded between them in the past 24 hours, raising a toll that has exceeded 17,700, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, with many thousands more missing and presumed dead.
Footage obtained by Reuters inside another hospital in Deir al-Balah, the Jaffa hospital, showed extensive damage from a strike on a mosque next door. The obliterated ruins of the mosque could be seen through the blown-out windows.
Medical workers in northern Gaza, where some of the heaviest fighting is taking place, accused Israel of targeting hospitals and ambulances.
A spokesperson for Israel's military did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment about the reports of shooting on ambulances and hospitals. The military has previously accused Hamas of hiding fighters in medical facilities.
Israel launched its campaign to annihilate Gaza's Hamas rulers after their fighters burst into Israeli towns on October 7, killing 1200 people and capturing 240 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israeli forces say they are limiting civilian casualties by providing maps showing areas that are safe, and blame Hamas for harming civilians by hiding among them, which the fighters deny.
